1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and a control method of the printing system for controlling to effectively select a plurality of post-process settings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flexible selection of formats of various output materials and reduction in human operations while maintaining high productivity are required in a printing system represented by the POD (Print On Demand) market. Examples of possible needs include applying a specific post-process to only part of one print job, applying a post-process to the entire print job and further applying another post-process to part of the print job, and applying a plurality of post-processes to only part of a print job. However, such needs have not been met conventionally. In particular, a combination of a post-process to the entire print job and a post-process to only part of the print job is not thoroughly examined although the combination may be different from the normal control of a post-process for the entire print job.
Other problems may occur when such needs are treated. However, the other problems have not been treated conventionally.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-222157 proposes a technique of combining batches of jobs with different settings, the technique allowing various settings for one print job without outputting unnecessary printed materials. According to the technique, after batches of jobs are combined if there are any settings that may pose a problem due to differences in settings, the same settings are carried over to the combined group. If a collective process is not possible, an alert is issued to prompt the user for a change.
However, the conventional technique includes the following problem. For example, in relation to the settings that may pose a problem, the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-222157 can only carry over the settings of combined print jobs within the combined group. Therefore, the conventional technique is short of allowing all various settings within one print job and does not sufficiently satisfy the needs of the user.